


Smiles

by DietCrowbarWriting



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Journal 3 (Gravity Falls), Romance, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-23
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2020-09-24 14:17:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20359903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DietCrowbarWriting/pseuds/DietCrowbarWriting
Summary: Dipper Gleeful: A playboy performer.Gideon Pines: A nervous outcast.Mabel Gleeful: A flirtatious diva.Will Cipher: A demon slave.They all have one thing in common. In some way, shape, or form, they want an escape.This is the story of how the new girl in town came into their lives and made sure nothing would ever be the same again. Enter...Pacifica Southeast: Sunshine.





	1. Home Sweet Shack

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm super excited to be doing a new story, and I think this one will be kinda a wild ride haha! Hope everyone enjoys, and leaves kudos and comments!

“Well, this is it, you two!”

Preston Southeast ruffles his daughter’s blonde hair as the family looks upon their new home. The ‘Mystery Shack’, located in Gravity Falls, Oregon. A soon-to-be tourist attraction! 

Pacifica looks up at her father and grins. She's so excited to finally be at their new home with him and her mother, Priscilla! For most of Pacifica’s life, the Southeast family traveled all around. But now that she's twelve, they’ve decided to finally settle down and start the family business. She can’t wait to help out in the gift shop and take guests on tours.

“Not too big, located in nature…” Priscilla smiles. “It’s perfect! I think we’ll be very happy here.”

“Of course we will!” Preston laughs. “The locals are supposed to be friendly, too.” 

“I can’t wait to meet new people! Make friends!” Pacifica gasps, looking down at the chicken in her arms. “Maybe we’ll even meet a cute boy, Clucks!” 

Clucks’ only response is to, well, cluck! As valid an agreement as any. Sometimes Pacifica finds herself wishing that Clucks could actually talk. But the two understand each other well enough as it is! 

“Let’s go look at the inside!” Her father moves towards the house. Pacifica can tell he's excited. This has been his dream for a long time now, he really wanted to run something like this. 

Pacifica smiles at her mother and the two follow Preston through the old wooden door. The home they’ve chosen is an old shack, which needs lots of fixing up. Perfect for family bonding time! A new house would’ve been so boring. Apparently, the previous owner of the house had had lots of secrets, so Pacifica simply can not WAIT to explore. 

Apparently, neither can Clucks. At his squirming, Pacifica places her friend onto the floor so he can explore to his hearts’ content. He immediately goes on his own merry way. He’ll turn up again later for mealtime, though. He's kinda like a cat in that sense! 

Pacifica looks around the front room. Spacious, will definitely make a good gift shop! The room is, of course, empty. The family’s furniture and things like that are still being brought in the moving van. It'ss arrive sometime tomorrow, but until then all they have is the luggage they brought in the car, which isn’t too bad! Pacifica has all of her most important things.

“The kitchen is absolutely perfect!” Preston enters through a door that leads to a different part of the shack. One of his hobbies is creating cooking concoctions and new recipes for the family to try. Some of them turn out to be flops, but most are pretty good! It always excites Pacifica when she gets to try a new recipe. “I’ll be able to make some great food in there!” 

“Try not to go TOO nuts in there, we won’t be able to breathe for food!” Priscilla laughs. The other two Southeasts join in as well. 

“I’ll try.” Preston kisses his wife on the cheek before looking over to Pacifica. “Pacifica, why don’t you go pick a room and leave your luggage in there? And then we can cook burgers on a fire tonight.” 

“Kay!” Pacifica heads into the house, dragging her suitcase behind her. There are lots of rooms on the main floor, but she doesn't look into any of them. There’ll be plenty of time for that later! She wants to find a nice room upstairs with a nice view. So she heads upstairs.

The second floor holds a few rooms, and all of them would be so nice to sleep in! But a few of them still have things in them from previous tenants. Like a copier, and there's even a whole bed! Pacifica decidedly selects a nice, _ empty _, bedroom close to the stairs. It has a smaller window than she would like, though, and it doesn’t even open. But oh well. Beggars can’t be choosers!

She heads back towards the stairs, and for the first time notices that they go up even higher. Gasping with delight and brimming with curiosity, she walks up them to what seemed to be the attic. 

There's just one room, but the moment she opens the door, she's in love. A huge window, enclosed space, chicken nesting corner? Yes please! She runs back downstairs to grab her suitcase, and instead leave it in the attic. That'll be where she'll live! She can’t wait to really make the room her own! 

When Pacifica goes downstairs, her parents are outside near the firepit. She quickly joins them, running towards them with excitement. They look towards her, smiling at the sight of her joy.

“Mom! Dad!” She speaks excitedly. “The attic is so great! I’m gonna live there!”

“That sounds great!” Preston laughs and hugs her. “Seems like this day just keeps getting better.”

“Pacifica, do you think you could go find us some firewood?” Priscilla stands up from where she's kneeling by the firepit and cocks her head at Pacifica, who nods, still grinning. “Oh, thank you so much, you’re such a big help!”

Pacifica leaves her parents behind once more, heading off into the dark forest. Seems her first adventure is beginning!


	2. A Mystery Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pacifica finds a little more than firewood in those woods.

The forest is dark and expansive. Pacifica really wants to explore, but it seems like it would be really easy to get lost in. And since she has to go right back with the firewood, she'll have to make sure to be quick. Otherwise her parents might worry, and she definitely doesn't want them to worry!

As she steps into a semi-open clearing, Pacifica glances around. There are some sticks around here, that look really brittle and good for burning. And there's a log leaning against that tree. She heads straight for that log and tries to lift it, bouncing on her toes. Perfect! Although it's kinda heavy. Her arms shake as she holds it. 

Crack!

She whirls around, dropping the log. Where did that noise come from? She stares warily into the dark trees, curious to see if whatever was lurking was friend or foe. Hey, is that a pair of... eyes? Something is definitely there. She takes a step back, backing into the tree. 

The creature seems to be drawing closer. Pacifica places her hands behind her on the tree, ready to defend herself. Her heart pounds. Time to prove her mettle. Three... Two... One...

She lets out a yell as the creature bursts out through the bushes. No scary monsters are getting HER today. Wait... Clucks??? 

Pacifica bursts out laughing as her chicken jumps into her arms. "You followed me!" She can't believe that he's what she's been so scared of! She gives him a gentle squeeze in greeting. That was sweet of him, to follow her all the way out here. 

Clucks lets out another cluck, looking at something behind Pacifica. She cocks her head and turns to see, letting out a soft gasp as she did so. When she'd placed her hand on the tree, it must have caused a hidden panel to fall open, revealing a compartment in the tree, now open before her. Inside seems to be a very old looking... radio... device? 

"Woah!" She grins, setting Clucks down for the moment. "This thing looks ancient!" She moves closer, fiddling with a few dials on the top. Maybe she can get it to work, and bring it home! That would be the coolest radio ever! 

From behind, there comes a sudden loud whirring. Clucks lets out a rather chickeny scream (not that he's a chicken, but like, he's a chicken, you know?) and when Pacifica whirls back around AGAIN she can't even see Clucks anywhere. 

"Clucks?" 

She notices that yet another panel seems to have opened up in the ground. Who built all this? And what do they have against her lovely chicken? For as she walks closer, she can see that Clucks has fallen in, mildly shocked looking but honestly not that much more than usual. She kneels down next to the compartment and reaches in to retrieve him, stroking his feathers comfortingly. 

"That was scary, huh?" She says softly. Clucks clucks. 

And that's when she notices what he was on top of. 

"What's this?" She reaches back into the shallow pit, brushing cobwebs off of the cover of an old dusty book. It has a six fingered hand with a 3 in the center on the cover. "3?" 

After exchanging a look with Clucks, she starts to flip through the pages, seeing that it's some sort of journal. Pages and pages of writing and drawings, all about... Paranormal creatures? Her eyes widen. "This is crazy!" Pacifica grins brightly. Gravity Falls is even more exciting than she'd expected! Gnomes, and vampires... Demons and woodpeckerpeckers... it's just so amazing!

A page with big letters catches her gaze, and she pauses, reading aloud. "Unfortunately, my suspicions have been confirmed. I'm being watched. I must hide this book before He finds it. Remember - In Gravity Falls, there is no one you can trust."

This is insane. Who's 'He'? Is that who was watching the person who wrote this? 

"Trust no one?" She looks up from the pages, completely shocked. 

Now THIS is an interesting find.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there we go all her exposition is done... After months of procrastination! That's just how it be sometimes ig.


	3. Pines Of Pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A completely different type of family introduces itself.

"Boy, get down here!" 

You flinch. Jeez, what is it this time...? You'd hoped that after getting your dinner of pasta without sauce, which is very meh, that your parents would leave you alone for the rest of the day. But NO, you always have to do SOMETHING wrong, huh? 

You push your baseball cap lower over your white hair, mostly to hide your eyes so you might not have to make eye contact or anything terrifying like that, and you step out of your small second-story bedroom. You lean over the railing to peek down into the living room, and quickly pull back when you see your father pacing below. He doesn't look pleased. Then again, does he ever?

You don't think anything good can come out of delaying this encounter (mostly from experience), so you simply step down the stairs and into the living room, keeping your eyes low. When you speak, it's more of a half-assed mutter than anything else. You're not brave enough to speak much louder.

"Yes, Father...?" To your credit, you manage to keep your tone from shaking. But to be honest, that's probably because you feel so numb and detached at the moment. 

You assume he turns his gaze on you, but you wouldn't know, because the living room carpet is far more interesting at the moment. That's sure a carpet pattern. 

"Gideon." Your father growls. Yikes. Growling is never a good sign. "Stand up straight." 

You sigh and straighten out your back, tilting your head up to look at the large man. You're certain the expression on your face is very blank and stoic, which he certainly can't complain about.

He sighs, anyways, rubbing a few fingers to his temple. "You're a living headache, boy, why can't you just behave?" 

"What did I even do...?" You can't help but feel vaguely insulted. You haven't even DONE anything, to your knowledge, and you have lots of big plans this evening. Like reading a book, or something. And then sleeping. Lots of stuff going on there. 

"It's not WHAT you did, but what HASN'T been done." Your father narrows dark eyes down at you. You feel sweat trickle down your forehead. Your father's gaze is starting to bore into you, making you feel vaguely uncomfortable. "Didn't I tell you yesterday to go into town and buy some groceries? Somebody's gotta do it, and your mother sure isn't going to, now is she?"

"...no, she's not, Father." No, she's too busy dealing with making sure that the reputation of the Pines family was a perfect one. She has no time for trivial matters like groceries with such a full social life. And your father is tired every day after work. You start to feel guilty. You know what's expected of you, since you have neither of the above distractions. It's your duty to help your parents out. "Sorry. I forgot to." 

Your father 'hmph's and turns away from you. Your shoulders relax. "Then get to it, boy. We'll discuss punishment when you get home." 

That's not the sort of thing that's usually discussed. You're pretty sure he just means you'll be berated and punished without much discussion at all. You try to push that out of your mind, because thinking about it makes you feel mildly tingly in a few areas of your body. 

You turn towards the door, grabbing a suitable amount of change from the coffee table. Maybe it'll feel good to get out of the house for a little while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm having fun with different writing styles for each character. This was an especially fun exploration, since I've never done second person before!


	4. A New Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gideon meets the new kid in town.

You step out of the local Gravity Falls supermarket, struggling to carry two heavy bags of food you thought might be good to have in the house. You're small for your age, and kinda weak, and your arms have trouble holding up all this stuff. For just a moment, you wish your father had come with you. It wouldn't be very pleasant to be around him, but at least you wouldn't have to carry everything yourself.

It's getting late, and the sun is sinking lower with each passing second. You're afraid of what could happen if you stay out too late, so you start the anxious trek home. You keep your eyes low and under your hat, as usual. You're very careful not to look at any of the few people out on evening walks. 

You're so focused on avoiding people that you walk straight into someone. You get knocked back onto the ground, dropping your bags. You pray that none of the food was damaged as you nervously try to gather the few things that spilled out back into the bags, ignoring the pain in your back that's probably there from landing on an injured spot.

"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry!" A feminine voice sounds from above you. You don't really look up, but she sounds genuinely concerned. You can see her skirt, and you like the colourful style of it. "Are you okay?"

The girl holds out a hand to you. You accept the hand, fingers shaking a bit, and dare to look up at her face as she helps you up. You see a cute blonde girl with large blue eyes full of worry. You immediately feel so much more embarrassed than you did previously.

It occurs to you that she's expecting a response from you, so you mutter out "I'm fine" and brush yourself off, picking up your bags, hoping she doesn't notice you visibly struggling. She does, and moves to help you.

"These are really heavy!" She says, surprised. "What's in them?" 

You glance at her, unsure how to handle her high energy and bold way of being that you can see already, even though you just met her. 

"Groceries." You answer, shrugging. "We needed a lot of food."

You move to take the bag she's holding from her and continue on your way. You don't want to be delayed much longer. She moves her hand away, shaking her head.

"It's okay, I can help you carry this!" She grins brightly. "Which way are you going?" 

You stare at her wordlessly for a moment, not comprehending whatever she thinks she's doing. 

"You really don't have to-" 

"I want to!" She cuts you off. "You look like you need help, and also I'm new in town and don't have any friends!"

You can't believe she can say that so casually. "Well, you don't want to be friends with me." You walk past her, accepting that she's probably going to follow you no matter what so you might as well let her carry that bag. "I'm kinda uncool." 

"I don't mind that!" She bounces along beside you. "I'm Pacifica!" 

You glance at her, surprised anyone would want to be friends with an outcast like you. "I'm Gideon." You say quietly. 

"Nice to meet you, Gideon!" Pacifica radiates bright and happy energy, you're kinda intimidated by it. You've never met anyone like this before. She's different. 

The two of you walk in silence for a while, Pacifica clearly itching to talk about something but probably being turned off by your quiet, distant demeanor. 

Eventually the two of you stand at the edge of your street. "My house is just right up there." You say, turning to Pacifica. "I can take that bag now." 

"Don't you want me to take it all the way?" She tilts her head curiously. "It's really no problem!" 

You shake your head. "It's fine, really." You give her a nervous smile. "We can maybe hang out again some other time." 

"Oh! Well, in THAT case…" She grins, pulling out a crumpled piece of paper from inside her jacket pocket. "You can come visit me here! Anytime you want!" 

You take the piece of paper, looking down at it. "The Mystery Shack?" 

"It's my family's tourist attraction! Mysteries of all kinds! Anyone's welcome!" She's very animated as she says it. She must be very passionate about this Shack. 

You nod. "I'll try to stop by sometime." You put the paper in your pocket and take the second bag of groceries from her. You turn away. "Bye, Pacifica." It's really awkward.

"Bye, Gideon!" Pacifica almost sings it, and you hear her turn and skip away. 

You walk up the street to your house, unable to prevent your face from smiling, as it so rarely does. 

_A friend…? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And our two characters so far have met! How fun!!


	5. Boredom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A third point of view enters the story.

The young boy stared out his window, not really looking at the rainy streets below, but more staring blankly at the clouds. He was so unbelievably bored. He was ALWAYS bored. Everything was so boring. 

"Dipper, do me a favour and stop brooding, okay?" Mabel's annoyed tone hit his ears. She was always annoyed. Everything annoyed her. "It's putting a damper in my style."

Mason 'Dipper' Gleeful turned his gaze away from the window, and he looked across the bedroom at his twin sister. She was sitting on the nearer side of her bed, arms crossed, one foot tapping impatiently. 

"Sorry." He said listlessly. He wasn't really sorry. He just didn't care to argue with her at the moment.

Unfortunately, she disagreed. 

"Say it like you mean it." Mabel stood up, placing her hands on her hips and walking to the middle of the room.

"Nah." Dipper rolled his eyes tiredly. "This is my room, and I can do what I like in it." 

"You're not even doing anything!" She marched over to him and dragged him to his feet. "And this is MY room too, so you'll just have to get out if you want to mope."

Dipper "hmph"ed and pulled himself out of her grip. Without a word, he stalked past her and left the room. Like he'd said, he didn't care about arguing with her. She could do whatever she was doing in private, and he'd just go entertain himself elsewhere. Or not. He could just find another window to stare out of. 

He wandered through the halls of the Gleeful mansion, enjoying the empty quiet, at least to some degree. Some days it felt stifling and lonely. But others it felt nicer, solitary and peaceful. 

At least when he didn't run into one of his uncles. They were kinda a thorn in his side, especially Stanley, who was loud and greedy. He idolized his great uncle Ford, but that guy sure was strict. It was kinda rough all around.

He rounded a corner and there was Great Uncle Ford. He managed to stop himself the moment before he walked straight into the tall man's legs. 

"Ah." Dipper took a step back, looking up at his uncle. "Hello, Mason." 

"Hi." Dipper responded simply. He didn't care for conversation at the moment. He didn't care for anything at the moment. Everything was so boring. 

"What are you up to, nephew?" Ford continued to walk right back the way Dipper had come. Dipper sighed and turned around, walking beside his great uncle, as was clearly expected. 

"Nothing." Dipper adjusted the amulet at his neck. "There's nothing interesting to do." 

Ford cocked his head carefully down at his nephew. "Your sister seems to have no problem." 

"She's Mabel." 

"Ah, right." Ford nodded. "Well, my boy, if you're looking for something to do, you might go into town and see if you can't attract customers using your… charm." His gaze shifted to Dipper's amulet. Dipper didn't even really need to use it to get people to pay. They came just for him. Foolish teenagers thought they had a chance with him.

"...sure." Literally anything was fine. At least he'd be doing something? Sort of? 

"Well then, off you go." Ford tapped his shoulder and scooted him in the direction of the entrance hall. Dipper nodded and set off in that direction. He wrapped his cloak around his shoulders and set out, not needing an umbrella, of course. What was the point of magic if you never used it? 

He walked down the sidewalk, ignoring feminine screams of joy. Looked like a few fangirls had been camped outside the manor. To be expected. He mustered up the energy to wink flirtatiously, and one of the girls promptly fainted. She'd probably catch cold, but whatever. Her choice to become infatuated. 

As Dipper grew closer to the busier area of town, he started to pick up his step a little. Being adored did have a certain rush to it, and though it didn't cure his boredom in the slightest, it was a good distraction. 

And so was that. On a post, becoming suitably soaked, there was a flier advertising something called 'The Mystery Shack', just outside of town by the woods. 

Ah, that must be the newcomers his uncles had commented on. So they'd opened a tourist place, huh? Well, he might as well check it out. If they seemed like they'd pose a threat to the Tent of Telepathy, he could always persuade them to shut down. 

Dipper started on his way there, striding with purpose he hadn't had before at all, paying no attention to anyone he encountered in his path.

***

The Mystery Shack looked tacky. The sign, the DIY paint job, the creaky door, it all SCREAMED poorly done. And yet, as he stepped into the front, there were loads of people in the gift shop, some of whom he recognized as Tent of Telepathy regulars.

There was a hushed whispering as he entered. Nothing new. He ignored it and marched up to the dark haired boy standing at the counter. 

"Uh… hi?" So Robbie Corduroy was an employee here, hm? Interesting. "Welcome to The Mystery Shack, would you like-" 

"Where can I speak to whoever's in charge?" He cut Robbie off, having no time or patience for any sort of sales pitch. "I want to… welcome them to our humble town." 

Robbie looked visibly uncomfortable. Dipper could see his sweat. Luckily, before he could say anything, someone else chimed in.

"I can take it from here!" Dipper turned to see the source of the chipper voice, and was stunned by the sight before him.

_ Oh. Now who is THAT? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mmmm spicy
> 
> he's just so bored and uninterested it's so fun hehe


	6. Annoyance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mabel informs the reader about things she thinks are annoying.

My eyes skimmed over the notebook page before me, taking in the notes for tomorrow’s performance. This was FAR easier with my broody brother out of the room. He could be SO annoying at times. What was even out that window to stare out? 

Ugh, no, I was dwelling on my annoyances again. I’m not Dipper, what was I doing thinking about this? I returned my attention to my notes. There was a fairly complicated spell planned, for some cheap sparkly payoff. My talents were wasted on this magic show… Still, it’s nice to be admired, and I liked knowing I had the whole town in the palm of my hand. Anyways, whenever Dipper came back, hopefully he’d be in a better mood so I could go over this spell with him.

I stood up from my bed, straightening out a few wrinkles in my skirt. Oh, but not by hand. Of course I used magic. Simply because I can~! Dipper would call that ‘pointless’ and a ‘waste of magic’, but it’s my magic and I can do what I like with it. 

I walked over to the window, looking outside. Just as I’d thought. Nothing worth looking at. I sighed, leaning back against the cold glass. The temperature didn’t particularly bother me, and even if it did, I had magic to warm myself with.

“Will.” I spoke out into the room, calling for our pet demon. He was really such a cutie… Surprisingly, it took a minute for him to appear before me. I narrowed my eyes in disapproval, ignoring his flinch. 

When we’d first summoned Will, he’d appeared as a floating blue triangle, a single eye in the middle of his face. In order to make him less… conspicuous, we’d convinced him to take a more human shape. In my opinion, he looked MUCH better this way. 

“Y-Yes, M-Mabel?” He always sounded so… nervous. Why couldn’t we get a demon with BACKBONE? He was so pathetic…

“This spell.” I shoved my notebook towards him. He jumped slightly, looking down at the open page. “How easy is it to perform? And is your… feeble ability enough?”

I watched as his catlike gaze moved across the page. Such an interesting appearance he had. 

“I-I can do it… it would definitely be t-too much for one of your amulets.” 

“Well, obviously I knew that.” I tapped my foot impatiently. “These stupid things aren’t good for much more than levitation. Otherwise why would we even NEED a demon, Will.”

“R… right.” He nodded, staring at the floor. I rolled my eyes. He was so pathetic. 

“Well, get going, then.” I turned to the window, waving him away. “You should practice that before tomorrow.”

“Of course, I’ll get r-right on that.” Will said softly.

“And Will?” I glanced back over my shoulder at him. He looked up quickly. “DON’T screw it up.”

“I…” He was practically shaking at this point. “I won’t, Mabel.” 

“You’d better not.” I muttered as he disappeared in a flash of blue and yellow. 

As soon as he was gone, I floated myself over to my bed and lied back in it. Sometimes I thought perhaps I was too harsh on Will. But he was just so ANNOYING. Grow a backbone, then maybe I’d consider showing him a bit more respect. He was just SO useless. 

It was also annoying that he preferred Dipper to me. It was obvious, in the way he spoke to us. Why did Dipper have to be so… polite? He wasn’t NICE, but he was nicer than me. 

_ People shouldn’t like him better! He’s the worst!! _

I would just have to deal with it, I guessed. At least I got to be the star of the show.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a pretty short chapter, but it's just to introduce her POV! There's just one POV character left after this and we can proceed with the story.


End file.
